Monday, September 11, 2006

It's been hinted about for some time, but Air America's rumored lineup changes will finally be official at the liberal talk network...starting a week from today. And it brings a change for one partially Ohio-based talk host.

OMW hears that in the official announcement, as rumored and even reported by the host himself, "Majority Report"'s Sam Seder will move into the 9 AM-noon ET slot on AAR.

And though that means "The Sam Seder Show" will indeed bump former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer off of the main Air America satellite feed, as expected, Air America will continue to offer Springer's show via its syndication arm in the current time slot. That's the same distribution used for Thom Hartmann, which AAR Syndication offers opposite network mainstay Al Franken.

Other changes on the official schedule released late today, which starts September 18th:

* Sirius/syndicated hosts "The Young Turks" take 6-9 AM ET weekdays.

* Rachel Maddow, who shared morning drive with Mark Riley, moves to a new two hour evening show from 6-8 PM ET.

* Riley continues for an hour on the AAR schedule, 5-6 AM ET, and the new Maddow show trims AAR afternoon drive host Randi Rhodes to a 3 hour program from 3-6 PM ET.

* The rest of the old "Majority Report" slot will be filled by two AAR weekend shows going to weekdays - "Politically Direct" with David Bender, and "EcoTalk" with Betsy Rosenburg (one hour each).

* And fired late night host Mike Malloy is officially off the schedule, with Detroit-based host Peter Werbe listed only as a guest host in the 10 PM-12 AM time slot. (It appears the 12-1 AM slot formerly occupied by Malloy's show will now be filled by the start of the Al Franken repeat broadcast.)

According to the information we have, AAR says Werbe will be in the slot through September 29th, until "a permanent replacement is confirmed".

A lot of this doesn't even concern most Ohio-based AAR affiliates, with a number of these shows not even carried by the state's three liberal talk stations.

But Cincinnati icon Jerry Springer continues to hold his radio breath, and survives another day...though he will certainly lose a number of "turnkey" AAR affiliates which only carry his show because it's on the network's 24/7 feed. Until next Monday, that is.

We have not seen this on any of the other online radio trade sites, so we may well have an exclusive here...

You know it is funny. ESPN Radio bleeds money and gets low ratings, Fox sports bleeds money and gets low ratings, Radio Disney bleeds money and gets low ratings, many of these Catholic and Christian radio stations bleed money and get low ratings, most Adults Standards stations bleed money and get low ratings, etc. Should we shut down all of those stations? Go black? What would you do?

Believe it or not Air America is not too far off from turning a profit and in many major markets are climbing in the ratings (San Diego, LA, Seattle, Portland, OR., Madison, WI., Miami, Denver, Columbus, OH. etc.)

Don't even get me started on the amount of money satellite radio is bleeding with their tiny tiny showing in the ratings.

I think Air America might post bigger ratings if the hosts would learn some of the basics of broadcast radio: be relatable, be friendly, be ENTERTAINING. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and O'Reilly have perfected this. Ed Schultz and Alan Colmes are tho only left-of-center hosts that seem to have any kind of grasp of the concept. Randi Rhodes certainly has not.

I know what we need..................more right wing talk!!! There is nothing I like more than listening the same old right wing talking points all day. Please...give me a break!!! All that WTAM is anymore is commercial after comercial with a few right wing talking points thrown in to break up the commercials. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ